You Should Start Playing h3 and g4

Introduction

It's a beautiful day to play chess.

I start off with 1. e4 and my opponent responds with 1...e5. I continue with 2. Nf3, but just a few turns later my opponent plays the annoying ...Bg4, pinning the knight on f3. When I see such a move, some type of primal wrath activates within me. I feel the urge to play h2-h3, and after the bishop retreat, continue with g2-g4.

For a long time I never went through with it - my kingside would obviously be far too weak if I made such daring pawn pushes. However, I've recently learned that in many situations, h3-g4 isn't just playable, it's the absolute best sequence of moves. In this blog, I'll try to prove it to you and hopefully inspire you to play this way as well.

The Bishop's Eviction

Here's a diagram of what I was talking about in the introduction. We advance our pawns to kick out the enemy bishop.

This post will go over this strategic concept. Throughout this blog, I'll be writing mainly from White's perspective for simplicity's sake. Bear in mind that while I say h3 and g4 over and over, the same ideas apply when you play Black and play h6 and g5.

General Guidelines

Such a bold pawn push always comes with some risk. If it works, you're a genius, and if it doesn't, you're an idiot (though I think I'm an idiot regardless).

Without the power of hindsight, differentiating between good and bad situations is very difficult. In this section I'll share with you some guidelines and dogmas to get you on the right track. Keep in mind that these rules are meant to be broken. In fact, I encourage you to break them all if you see fit.

Uncastled? Go Forth

Usually, if your king is not yet castled, the kingside weaknesses created by h3 and g4 are far less important. Your king can castle queenside or even stay in the centre for the foreseeable future. If your opponent's king is castled, you could even mount an unstoppable attack with your kingside expansions. Let's look at an example.

I think Black showed great understanding of the h3/g4 principles I write about in this blog. Model Game 1 involves h3 and g4 being played with the king being uncastled.

Castled? Think Twice...

Deciding whether or not to push h3 and g4 is a bit tricker after you've castled on the kingside. In some situations it'll work beautifully, and in others it will lead to a complete collapse of your position.

Generally, if you've castled kingside but your opponent has not (and has a safe space elsewhere for his king), you shouldn't go ahead with g4. When you castle, the pawns in front of your king are like a shield, and the farther away a shield moves from your body, the more vulnerable you become. Your pawn on g4 is a hook and will be easily undermined by moves like …h5.

However, if  your opponent isn't able to (or can't afford to) open up the kingside, the h3 and g4 plan should be safe. You could also play it to expand on the kingside. One important indicator is the situation in the center. If the center is closed, you usually want to play on the flanks. This can justify pawn advances like g4. However, if the center is open, you probably shouldn't be engaging in such horseplay...

Overall, the most important factor is king safety. Can your opponent get to your king if you play g4? If you don't think so, you should go ahead.

Trap the Bishop

This may sound obvious, but if you can trap a bishop by playing h3 and g4, that's probably what you should do. It's nearly always worth it, even if you severely damage your pawn structure or take a hit to your king safety. A full piece is a full piece! Your aim should be to consolidate and liquidate into a winning endgame.

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule. For example, if the bishop is trapped but Black can sacrifice a knight on g4 and the complications end up in his favor. A bit of foreshadowing as we head into the next section...

The Knight's Sacrifice on g4

Here's an example of a situation where you absolutely should not play h3 and g4...

I remember a skittles game I played outside a chess tournament hall featuring this theme. After I played a knight sacrifice on g5, my opponent (a little kid) said, "you're not Morphy lil bro" in the most annoying tone. I'd love to report that I beat him and shut him up, but I actually ended up losing. This incident has haunted my chess career and to this day I hesitate before sacrificing my knight.

On a more important note, when playing h3 and g4 you should be cautious but not overly afraid of this idea. If you calculate and evaluate the position objectively (much easier said than done) you'll find that there are many circumstances in which you can safeguard your weak king enough to consolidate the material advantage.

Model Games

This is the part of the blog you should focus the most on. I've carefully selected and annotated these games in an effort to impart with you the 'Why' behind the dogmas I've spread. I hope you'll understand these ideas better after seeing it in action in real games. As I yapped about in a previous blog, I've chosen amateur online games over master games. I feel it'll be more digestible, accessible and practically useful for you and me.

Model Game 1

The first game was played between two 2200-rated players. White plays the Scotch Opening and soon makes a slight opening inaccuracy. This allows Black to quickly get in h6 followed by g5. Black navigates king safety issues and gets into an equal endgame where his decision to advance the kingside pawns gives him the edge. He outplays his opponent and achieves a well-deserved victory.

Black did not hesitate to unleash g5 and was wise in placing his king on the opposite side of the board. The game also showed the usefulness of having these advanced kingside pawns deep into the middlegame and even endgame.

Model Game 2

The second game is a bit more exciting and will appeal to the barbaric readers who love quick knockouts. White uses the h3/g4 strategy to launch a kingside attack, and with a bit of help from his opponent, delivers checkmate within 25 moves.

This game shows the attacking potential of the advancing kingside pawns. We can orchestrate pawn storms or open up lines into the enemy king. 

Model Game 3

This game is a positional battle with lots of deep thought, strategic imbalances, careful maneuvering and other nuisances. I retrieved it from an ancient Chess.com forum post, and it features some of the original player's annotations. (I couldn't ask for permission as the user, @TheGreatOogieBoogie, last logged on in 2015.)

I owe Mr. Boogie thanks for sharing this game; I found his annotations very lucid and his play instructive. This game shows how you can maximize the kingside space advantage afforded to you by the pushing of the h- and g-pawns for and trade it for other advantages such as material. I would even go as far as to say that playing h3 and g4 won Mr. Boogie the game.

Model Game 4

In this game, the protagonist executes the h3/g4 idea and promptly gets crushed. It's a great example of what shouldn't happen in your games. The below game happened at my local chess club. It was the final match of a massive tournament (whose prize was $0 and bragging rights). I hovered around the board with my phone like a geek, recording the moves for posterity.

Afterwards I cheerfully congratulated the winner and even more cheerfully chided the loser for pushing his pawn to g5. The above game actually got me thinking about this idea and eventually inspired me to write this blog. 

Conclusion

This is the end of the blog and I hope that by now you cannot look at a bishop on g4 without yearning to charge forward some pawns. I encourage you to implement the h3/g4 idea in your own games. Remember that g4 will be a good move a lot more often than you'll think. Thanks for reading, see you in the next blog.